In 2015 I was fortunate enough to meet many hundreds of children for party entertainment. It’s amazing how many little smiling faces I see, and how many high fives I’m part of. A privilege I don’t take for granted and hope I never do.

However, also in 2015 I was also able to face one of my fears – being part of a small film.

Although I have been on television before a couple of times, an actual film shoot is a completely different experience. Although only a small role, I had to stand in an exact place, look a certain direction and learn lines, albeit only a few.

Being a natural improvisor I have always found sticking to any script a challenge as I want to go on tangents to see where they’ll take me, and go for laughs. All my shows are ad-libbed and I bounce off the audience reaction, a method that has served me well. If I have to think about it, the last time I used a script was in a small theatre production, and that was 30 years ago. I struggled with sticking to it then.

However, five takes and a some awkward laughs later I managed it, and had a day I will remember for a long time.

Being surrounded by cameras, crew and an amazing director I realised I was right in the middle of one of the items on my ‘list of things to do’ before I leave the stage. Exciting and scary place to be. I certainly have a new respect for the film-making process as I realised there is so much involved that we never even get to see. Incredible!

The children were such professionals, having done this many times before. Wonderful little actors, able to smile and laugh on cue; makes me think I need these children at all of my performances.

Later in the year the film will be shown at the Film Festival, which will be another ‘exciting and scary place to be’.